FCHouse

DVD Prices

Posted by Carlo - 29/06/05 at 02:06:38 pm

Yesterday I told you that I have pre ordered the DVD of the Beppe Grillo Show for something like 10€. Is this is a correct price for a video?
Yes, I think that 10 or 15 euro for a DVD will wipe out all the battles for Copyright!, because all the people that does not buy a single video for prices that ranges between the 25 to 50 euro would affor the expences. I will buy the DVD, and believe me if I tell you that, probably, I will spend more than I do now because now I don’t buy any DVD (except for some) for ideology, because 40€ is a theft!. Sometimes I found the offerings for 10€ and that is the oly way I buy it! It is because I’m stubborn, but I’ll NEVER give them so much money for a movie! And the same ideology is valid for the Music CD!. Mr Faletti in the interview I’ve told you some days ago, told that the “Today Boys” does not like an entire CD Album, than they stole the music. Yes, it’s true that it is VERY HARD to find an entire album you like, but if once we were blind, unable to view that there are injustices covered under the Majors, now the Internet is spreading a new world in front of our eyes. For years we have been defrauded on the prices because of the monopoly of few of them, because of the cartel, and now they pretend the people to live in ignorance? Ah, they can go to hell!
There is a scene from Star Wars IV: A New Hope that reminds me this latest toughts… Princess Leia is with Darth Vader and Admiral Tarkin and she said them: “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems bwill slip through your fingers.”…

By the way, Tarkin died and the Empire was defeated!

So, will we become the Rebels of the RIAA and the MPIAA?

Money and Ideology…

Posted by Carlo - 28/06/05 at 09:06:15 pm

I was taking a little bit of relax after too many hours in the office, I was thinking about everything and nothing, I was thinking about my absurd idea to write in english, I was thinking about the life. I was lost, seraching myself in some web pages like I would like to hide the world we are living from my eyes. I was searching for some voices that was screaming like mine, tired to be alone in the dark.
I stopped myself in the web site of an editor, lost in the dream of the neverendig book I’m writing (still 200 pages, none in three weeks) and of the money I should get for this Best Seller (ha ha ha). Suddenly I was redirected to the blog of Beppe Grillo and I read a phrase that hit me like a truck at 180 km/h:
“Se io ho un euro e tu hai un euro e ce li scambiamo, alla fine restiamo con un euro ciascuno. Ma se io ho un’idea e tu un’altra idea e ce le scambiamo, alla fine ci troveremo con due idee ciascuno!”
that means:
“If I have an euro and you have an euro and we exchange it, in the end we will remain with an euro each. But if I have an Idea and you have another idea and we exchange it, in the end we will find with two ideas each!”
…
Deep.
So, I think that my book, if it will ever see the light, the Creative Commons will be a good solution. I’ll never get millionaire, but my ideology, my philosophy will never be sold for a bunch of euro!

BTW: if you understand italian, take a look to Beppe Grillo, he tells a lot on interesting things!
BTW(2): He will sell the DVD of his show for 10€… I’ll buy it!

“Alitalia” is only an acronym!!!!

Posted by Carlo - 28/06/05 at 11:06:37 am

Yesterday waking up at 4 in the morning after two hours of sleep. Hot, INCREDIBLY hot, no gust of wind and a terrible doom: another business travel!!!
And the worst has not yet come: the destination is Turin, not only one of the hottest cities in Italy in these days, but also one of the destination not covered by airplanes with a direct flight! So a flight to Milan Malpensa and then 2 hours by car to get Turin!
The first flight was quite good (only 15′ of delay… but nothing outside the normality) and then the car. We were a group of six people, so the only car available for that number was a Fiat Multipla (Sigh, Sob… what a bad luck!!!).
Yes, leaving from home at 4:30 I get Turin at 11:00. More than 6 hours!!!
ok, nothing bad… the meeting was quite good, and the weather (38 degree) let us decide to get to Malpensa earlier than expected (our flight eas at 9:30). The dream of the air condicioned and a good lunch in the airport was not so bad (relax, yeah!) but then the unexpected (? WHY UNEXPECTED ?)
Flight for Trieste, Gate A44 boarding time 21:10… CANCELLED!
AHRGH!!! NO! WHAT?

- “We are sorry, but your flight has been cancelled, but do not worry, we have reserved you another one”
- Where do u want to send us?!?!?!
- “We will take you to Venice!”
- mumble… “Excuse me, but how do we arrive to Trieste?
- “Oh, don’t worry” (Immagine a BIG smile on the face of the flight attendant) “We have arranged a bus transportation from Venice to Trieste”
- (Smile… SMILE?!?!) HEY, THERE ARE 150 Km…

In the end we took the flight to Venice not to stay one useless night in Milan, but remember:
Alitalia is not a name, it is an acronym:

Always Late In Takeoff Always Late In Arrival

SOB!

Ignorance and Testimonials: sorry Mr. Faletti!

Posted by Carlo - 26/06/05 at 11:06:09 am

We are now bombed with the spot against the copyright break, from every source of information and every well known italian face that can tell us that downloading from internet is a crime.
Ok, maybe the copyright is real, but life we are living now is real too, and no one seems to be thinking that we cannot go on this way, at least those who could change the thing!
I’m talking about Mr. Giorgio Faletti, well known writer, singer and actor in Italy. I haven’t found his website or his e-mail to send this directly to him, so I’ll tell ite here. He decided to be the testimonial for the new government campaign against the copyright break, and after this he decided to release an interview to a national newspaper… not a good choice, Mr. Faletti! In a passage of the interview he said:
“I think that open source is the better way to fall into the barbarity”
But he do not explain WHY he think so, and few moments later he admit NOT TO KNOW a loto of “Open Source” idealism or copyright, lice Creative Commons. But this is not the worst part of the interview, probably because the words “Open Souce” are on the mouth of everyone and are easy to tell… But he touched the worst position in his interview when he said:
“The Item to copy the cd… their producers sell them to copy music. So they destroy the music and soon there will be no more to be copied”
HEY, isn’t this ignorance! Dear Mr. Faletti, if you’ll ever read this do not read “Igorant” like an offence, but you ignore too many things to express those thoughts with so vehemence! I have a CD writer in my laptop and I use it every day! I have burned my applications, my backups and I have made a LEGAL COPY of my 40€ CD!
Hey, do u think that the music factory is at the heart of the world? Do you really think that the CD burner has been produced ONLY to copy your music?
Oh, dear, I had a great respect for you, I have bought your two books, but I’m astonished to read your words.
Please, PLEASE, before spreading your words of Justice and Rights, PLEASE, inform yourself and don’t do those blind shots against the World Worst problem”
You have also told that you hadn’t took money for this spot… well, maybe you are one of those 5% of italians that do not need it! Do you know why? Because with the copyright money you can have millions of euro.
And before brandish your sword to defend a thoughts, be ready to tell the world you know what are you talking about, otherwise the risk is to appear as a man that ignore the surrounding world, like you have done this time!

Songs and Smiles

Posted by Carlo - 24/06/05 at 04:06:00 pm

After the Duran Duran Concert I dig into my old CDs and I found their oldest songs.
One of the songs that are playing very often on my iTunes is Rio, from the homonym 1982 album. This is one of the songs that let me smile, that let me move until the music plays, that make me smile without a reason.
In my life I’ve found some songs that have some particular meanings, that keeps me up or that brings me down in my toughts. This song was forgotten in my memories, but when from the stage, some days ago, the firsts musical sound comes to my ears I remember some emotions 15 years far from today. It’s a good sensation to listen agai to the songs that gave something to you!
So, I’m now working with Rio that plays with the REPEAT ONCE and I took some minutes to write down this thoughts.
Ask to my mother if she remember The Cranberries‘ “Zombie”… that audio tape, in the end, was threadbared for the infinite times I had listened that song… and also now, when I listen to it, I’ll do more than once! :)

The power of the server applications!

Posted by Carlo - 24/06/05 at 11:06:47 am

Well, every day more I understand how powerful the Server Applications could be! If you remember my post of yesterday (Bugs are Good! No Bugs = No Progress) you can immagine how difficult could have been my day, but today we get to a brilliant solution!
If you read in the lines you can understand that a PATCH that kill some bugs it is called “BRILLIANT SOLUTION”! Ha ha ha…
Ok, the bugged application will remain bugged, but sending a simple 1000 byte (1KB), a lot less than this post, and doing some BIG works in the server side of the application (here, not in 500 clients) the trick is done!
YES
Now I can take a deep breath!
So, Server Applications have the power to be in a single location, can be modified “On The Fly” without accessing all the clients, a BIG time saving things!
He he he, I’m happy now! Maybe this weekend will be relaxing without this weight on my conscience! :)

Bugs are Good! No Bugs = No Progress

Posted by Carlo - 23/06/05 at 01:06:38 pm

Yes, if you are a software developer, bugs are everyday life and there is no second meaning in the title.
If you are a code writer bugs are the sign of the changes: no one can create a perfect world at the first try.
So Bugs are Good until the “Beta” became “Production” and the application is distributed. In the case you will find a bug only after the distribution the environment (Bugs=Good) can change a little bit…
…Immagine to distribute an application to 500 clients scattered trough the entire nation and you can try to understand my face this morning, when I found a bug of one of the applications we are creating.
My fault or not I am asking myself what is the fastest way to solve the problems…
SOB!

A Kick in the Ass is HOWEVER a step forward!

Posted by Carlo - 23/06/05 at 12:06:16 am

It’s just a flashing toughts that came into our minds before our deserved Bed Time!
For those who do not understand.. well do not worry, you are not the only one and you will not be the last! (I hardly understand it too!)
Just SMILE, thinking about it:
A Kick in the Ass is HOWEVER a step forward!
Overwhelm this, asskickers!

Self Esteem: The smile of yesterday!

Posted by Carlo - 22/06/05 at 07:06:25 pm

Today I found an article about the Self Esteem that captured my attention for a phrase from Seneca:
Se sei un uomo, ammira coloro che tentano grandi cose anche se poi falliscono
that means
If you are a human being, admire those who attempt big things even if then they fails!
Yeah, great!
I am reading something I’ve never read, I’m taking a look to the psychological (and philosophical) pictures that surrounds our environment. Am I becoming old or am I taking that strange things called wisdom? Well, it is obviously a joke, but I feel myself ignorant reading about things that are around us every single day of our life. I do not recognize it, even if they are in front of me every day. I know what they are, but I do not know how to call them and how to solve them.
Reading here and there I have found that I have a good self esteem, but it is something I never tought about… maybe because it is true, maybe because I never took care about it!
I’ve read that Smiling even if the day is dark, trying to take the bad days as they are (bad) without closing in yourself is a sign of self esteem.
For those who do not have a high self esteem every hill seems to be a mountain, but they must find the power to change in themselves, because our mind is so poweful that can change our vision of the life.
This is one of the things I never knew, and I have discovered, but I do not know how millions of things I do not know.
…
I don’t care, I will learn, untill that moment I’ll do what I have always done: I will live for the smile in the face of the one I Love.

Duran Duran Concert…

Posted by Carlo - 22/06/05 at 08:06:57 am

Yesterday we were two of the 10.000 in “Piazza Unita’ d’Italia”, the italian biggest square facing the sea, to follow the last italian date of the Astronauts Tour 2005.

The show was Great, and the man on the stage were five “Wild Boys” like 20 years ago. Yes, I remember them when my brother bought an audio tape of “Arena”, the 1984 album, and I can tell you that the music they played yesterday had nothing to envy to the ’80s. Maybe the voice is not so perfect, but the presence was great and Simon Le Bon seems to be an eternal “Perfect Man” for every woman.

Here you can find the photos of the concert… the quality is not superb, but it is the best we could!

• Duran Duran Concert in Trieste (Part 1)
• Duran Duran Concert in Trieste (Part 2)

We were there, and it was Great!

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Carlo Nicora is at home in London.